this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2023
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LPT: Food banks usually have deals with local food suppliers and wholesalers. They can do way more with a donation of money than they can with donations of actual food. Because they are able to cut out the middlemen.
Food bank worker here: though we have no such deal, money with no restrictions on use is just about the best thing to donate. It lets us buy fresh staples that otherwise are hard to come by, like eggs, butter and milk, or seasonally appropriate things like turkeys or hams (we had a total of 3 turkeys donated before Thanksgiving so we purchased around 50).
Next best thing to donate is whole cases of shelf stable foods. Individual cans and boxes must be inspected for best by date, damage to the packaging and complete labels, which becomes time intensive when you have 15 55 gallon barrels full of cans from food drives. Whole cases give you 12 packages of the same thing, all good to go from the factory.
Time is also great, but usually more needed the rest of the year. We don't let people volunteer at our outreach center during the holidays if they don't volunteer year round, simply because the people who only show up on the holidays tend to be doing a sort of poverty tourism that we find a little distasteful. Also, fresh volunteers need training and things are simply too crazy around the holidays to deal with it. If anyone is interested in food bank work, please find somewhere to volunteer the rest of the year. Feeding people is extremely satisfying work and we do need help the other 11 months of the year.
Our local food bank doesnβt have an issue with money or food. It has an issue with not having enough volunteers.
For sure!
Also helps to set a monthly donation instead of a lump sum once a year. It's more predictable for them, and they often get a lot of one time donations during the holidays and then very little otherwise. Monthly donations keep it consistent